Castiel's Secret
by FoxxStarr
Summary: While Castiel was homeless he met someone who changed his life forever. How does he end up changing hers and when will Sam and Dean find out. Rated M for swearing and sexy time
1. Chapter 1

Sam and Dean only thought they knew Castiel. They thought they had the Angel figured out and in a lot of ways they did, what they had not counted on however was that Castiel still had a few secrets and one of them was standing in front of the Impala her face set in dangerous lines. Castiel had been missing for weeks, even Sam and Dean were concerned over how long he'd been gone with not even a rumor to indicate where he was. Dean had finally had enough and they'd packed their gear and left the bunker to go looking for him, or at least a job so they didn't spend every waking moment wondering where he was. Dean had seen the figure leaning on the hook of the Impala and had pulled his gun without hesitation and pointed it at her.

"You'd better have a damned good reason for touching my baby." He growled.

She had stood up and put her hands on her hips her face set and angry. "Put the damned gun away Dean."

Sam had put his hand on his brother's arm lowering the weapon. "Who are you and how do you know us?" He'd asked.

She pushed a few strands of dark hair out of her face. "My name is Alora. I know Castiel, he talks about you a lot. Is he here? Please tell me he's here."

Dean holstered the gun. "No he's not. Who are you to Cas?"

She gave a very small smile. "His girlfriend."

Dean felt his head spin and Sam gaped. "His what?"

10 Months Ago:

Castiel carefully put the lid back on the trashcan and regarded the styrofoam container dolefully, the fries were stone cold and would probably be crumbly and bland but the burger only had a few bites taken out of it and the lettuce was still crisp so it hadn't been there very long. It was better than anything else he'd found in the last 12 hours and his stomach clenched painfully.

"You're not going to eat that." The female voice behind him startled him so badly he dropped the container and the burger fell out onto the filthy pavement and he almost cried, he didn't know how long it would take to find something edible again.

He turned towards the voice his head down, shoulders hunched. It hadn't taken him long to learn that the homeless were often physically abused for far less heinous crimes than dumpster picking, from under his matted hair that fell down over his face he saw the woman standing not three feet from him, he mentally berated himself for not noticing how close she'd gotten but the physical discomfort of hunger and cold had dulled his reactions.

She gave him an apologetic look and held something out, a plastic sandwich container that hadn't been opened yet, the plastic cover still tight and shiny, his eyes traveled from the sandwich up her arm to an open pretty face. She had large dark eyes and a short stub nose over full lips and a scattering of freckles. Dark hair cut shorter on the sides with a longer fall of hair on top that fell in disarray around her face framed her delicate features and he caught the glitter of multiple earrings in her ears. He looked back down at the sandwich then looked away. "No thank you." He rasped and started backing away. "That's your food, I will find something else."

She took another step forward and he caught sight of a plastic grocery bag hanging from her elbow. "I bought it for you." She said softly. "I've seen you around and I thought you might like something fresh."

He stopped and stared at her his mind reeling, he'd become accustomed to people ignoring him, even other homeless people and the regular folk who passed by on the streets refused to acknowledge the homeless. Some of the homeless that he'd spoken to told him not to bother trying to get their attention, no one in this town gave a damn about the homeless and yet, here she was. He hesitantly took the sandwich and she smiled. "I have a bunch more sandwiches if you know anyone else who need them?"

He felt stunned all over again and nodded a little helplessly. "Can you take me to them?"

He nodded speechless and motioned for her to follow him, he caught sight of the large backpack she wore as they walked until they came to the underpass. The homeless gathered around the barrels with their dirty fires burning in the metal containers gave them suspicious looks as the woman found a clear patch of ground. She unslung her pack and pulled out several bundles that were vacuum sealed. She spoke in a carrying voice. "I have sandwiches for anyone who wants them. Not throw aways either, sealed sandwiches and I also have clothes and toiletries and hats and gloves for anyone who wants them."

Castiel moved a little back and watched the other homeless shuffle forward. In ten minutes the woman was pulling her backpack on again as the homeless donned clean shirts hats, gloves and gathered back around the fire barrels to eat the sandwiches. He'd already devoured his and was content for the moment to watch the woman, the homeless had given her very little in the way of thanks, most of them too long inured to pain and hopelessness to see this as anything more than a temporary kindness. He watched her walk away and hurried to catch up to her. "Thank you." He said softly and she smiled.

"You're welcome. It's not much but it's what I can do."

"It's more than you know." He said simply.

She smiled and he watched her leave, sure he'd never see her was surprised that a week later she was back again with more sandwiches and more supplies, this went on for a month, once a week she'd show up with food and supplies, she never asked for anything she just gave and left. He finally worked up the courage to ask her about herself. While she was walking back to the main road he caught up to her pulling the clean hat he'd accepted down over his ears. "Why do you do this?" He asked.

"Why don't more people?" She asked softly. "We're given the gift of compassion and yet we do so little for those who need it. I have so much, I can give a little back."

He faltered and she was gone. He didn't see her again until he was working at the convenience store and she came in to buy sandwiches. He smiled at her and she didn't recognize him as he rang up the two dozen sandwiches she'd selected. And then she was gone again. The next week he saw her again. "You saved my life." He blurted out as he handed her the receipt.

She gave him a confused look then she grinned. "I wondered where you'd gone! I didn't recognize you."

He ran a hand down his vest. "I look very different clean." He said awkwardly. "My name is Castiel."

She smiled and tugged on his name badge. "I saw. I'm Alora."

And she was gone again, but every week she came back… until one week she didn't and Castiel felt in his gut that something was very wrong. He started by asking the homeless if they new where she lived then he started searching for her on the internet, she had an unusual name, he finally found her apartment almost by accident, a mailman had dropped mail with her name on it and Castiel just happened to see it. He buzzed the apartment but got no response, he wracked his brain trying to figure out what to do and unbidden a thought occurred to him. "What would Sam and Dean do?"

He thought about it and then buzzed the apartment below hers and claimed to be a delivery person. They unlocked the door and he hurried up the stairs to Alora's apartment, the plaque next to the buzzer had read Alora Anderson. When he finally got there he tried knocking but no answer again, his gut was screaming at him so he dug up another Dean solution and picked the lock. "Alora… It is Castiel, please do not be alarmed."

He heard a soft wheeze and hurried towards it only to find Alora laying on the couch very pale and very sick. He frowned at how hot she was and tried to wake her. When she wouldn't rouse he called an ambulance and rode with her feeling very awkward at being unable to answer any of the EMT's questions. "I don't know her well. I was worried about her…" He trailed off as the ambulance arrived and then nurses and doctors were asking him questions and he was so out of his depth.

They finally just ignored him and went to work on Alora while he sat in the waiting room wondering why he felt sick to his stomach with worry over a woman he barely knew. He clasped his hands on his knees and tried to will the sick worry away but it wouldn't go. He was afraid for her, afraid that the compassion she showed the homeless would wither away and die with her. He realized with a jolt that he was worried he wouldn't get the chance to know her better, she was special to him and so few humans were. It was frightening and exhilarating and so very human and he wanted to grab passersby and tell them that he cared, that someone cared because without Alora and the way she had cared about him he was sure he'd be dead now and it seemed important to tell people he cared too.

They finally came for him, the doctor told him he had gotten her there just in time, that the fever she'd been suffering from had been caused by tetanus, an infection gotten probably from a cut while out helping the homeless and she was lucky to have him as a friend because he'd saved her life. He'd thanked the doctor and asked to see her and now he was sitting beside her bed without a single clue as to what to say to her when she woke up.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam half turned in the seat and looked at the woman who had introduced herself as Alora Anderson. "When was the last time you saw Cas?" He asked.

"A week ago."

"He's been gone for weeks. You're tellin' me he's been with you all this time?" Dean growled.

Alora shook her head. "Not the whole time. He never stays very long, not since he got his Grace back. He says he doesn't want to put me in danger. He showed up last week frantic with worry, would not calm down until he'd moved me to an entirely new city, new apartment, everything then he vanished in the middle of the night."

"How did you two even meet?" Sam asked.

"I gave him a sandwich and he saved my life." She replied.

8 Months Ago:

When Alora woke the first thing she saw was Castiel asleep in the uncomfortable hospital chair, he had three day old stubble and looked like he hadn't showered in just as long but his face was open and untroubled in sleep and it made her smile. The nurse came in to check on her and smiled. "It's good to see you awake, you gave everyone a scare."

"How did I get here?" She rasped as the nurse checked her vitals.

The nurse motioned to Castiel. "He called an ambulance, said he found you passed out at home. You're really lucky too, you had a bad case of sepsis, another 12 hours and you'd be gone."

Alora winced and looked over at Castiel. "I guess he's my guardian angel."

"He sure is honey. He leaves for work then comes right back after his shift and sits right there watching over you." The nurse patted her arm and left promising to send the Doctor in.

When the door closed Alora looked over at Castiel and reached over to smooth a lock of his messy hair out of his face. "How'd I get so lucky huh?"

He jerked in surprise his eyes popping open as he jerked away then he relaxed when he saw her and a smile spread across his face. As far as Alora was concerned it was the best part of him, that genuine smile. The truest expression of his joy and relief that she was awake and alright and somewhere in her she felt something spark.

She got to explore that feeling when she was released from the hospital the next day and Castiel rode home with her in the cab she'd called. He sat awkwardly next to her on the way back to her apartment as he explained how he'd had to break into her home to help her. She laughed as she paid the cabbie and made her slow way up the steps with Castiel following behind looking worried when she paused to catch her breath. Almost dieing was exhausting she thought as she unlocked her door and entered her apartment sitting gratefully on the couch.

Castiel hovered uncertainly near the kitchen then gave her an awkward smile. "I should go...:"

"Where?" She asked pulling a pillow into her lap. "I know you're still homeless Castiel."

He flinched and looked around her small clean home, she gave him a sympathetic look and held a hand out motioning him closer. "Castiel please come sit with me."

He sat at the other end of her couch his shoulders hunched. "How could you tell?"

She ran her fingers along the seam of the pillow. "I've seen enough homeless people to know the signs. You wash in the bathroom when you think no one is around, your shirt is wrinkled because you've slept in it for days." She shrugged. "And I was working homeless too for a long time so I can tell."

He looked at her in surprise and she smiled. "It took me a long time to get up on my feet and off the street."

"How did you do it?" He asked.

She looked down and made a face. "I did stuff I don't like to think about until I was able to afford an apartment."

He nodded thinking about some of the homeless women he'd seen who sold their bodies for a night in a hotel but if Sam and Dean had taught him anything it was that women did not like to talk about such things and it was obvious she was ashamed of it. "I do not have those options." He said slowly.

"I know. And I wouldn't want you to have to do what I did. You've done really well getting and holding a job and I'm proud of you." She smiled a little at the look he gave her when he looked over at her.

"No one's ever told you they're proud of you have they?"

He shook his head. "I am more accustomed to being berated."

She wrinkled her nose. "That's awful, humans need encouragement, we need to be lifted up, especially when we're feeling rotten."

He almost told her what he had been but he just couldn't bear the thought of her expression if she learned the truth… and besides, he was human now and he needed a lift now more than ever before. "Castiel I am proud of you, getting a job and holding it while you're homeless is really hard and you're a really good man." She hesitated for a moment. "Would you like to live here with me until you can afford your own place?" She blurted.

He stared at her his mouth falling open, she looked just as shocked at her suggestion. "I...I shouldn't." He felt like hitting himself for turning down the offer, he desperately wanted to get off the street, to feel safe again.

"Yes. You should." She said firmly and reached over gripping his arm. "You need this and I want to help you."

And God forgive him he wanted to be helped so he said Yes.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam and Dean looked around at the small studio apartment where Castiel had left Alora a week ago. There were a few personal things scattered around but it was obvious she hadn't been there very long, a handful of boxes sat stacked against the wall and a sleeper couch with the bed pulled out had a neatly made up bed that took up most of the room. Was surprised Sam and Dean most were the photos on the walls. Pictures of Alora and Castiel, most of them were polaroid style selfies but a few were of Cas without his trenchcoat his sleeves rolled up holding a frying pan with the burned remains of a meal he'd tried to cook, another with Cas holding a scraggly stray cat sitting on a fire escape somewhere. Pictures of Alora sitting on the floor with a laptop in her lap and her hair a mess and pictures with her standing in a thrift shop holding an old vase.

'Newly weds.' Sam thought with a shock.

These were the kinds of photos newlyweds had in their first apartment together, he looked at Dean who looked just as stunned. "I gotta be honest, I thought you were shitting me about you and Cas." Dean blurted.

Alora frowned at him. "Why? Because he's an Angel? He was human when I met him, human and alone and so far out of his depth."

"Well… yeah actually." Sam said slowly.

"He's kinda the Heavenly Rainman." Dean said with a laugh. "It's kinda hard to picture him as some kind of Casanova."

Alora pursed her lips and pulled out her phone flicking through the apps until she found what she was looking for. She turned on a video and turned it towards them. "Cas… Hey Cas, sing it for me again. Please?"

Castiel looked into the camera and gave her a lopsided smile shaking his head. "My voice is not good Alora."

"I don't care. It's your favorite song." Alora's voice came out of the phone.

He rubbed his chin in embarrassment then started singing. " _Once I rose above the noise and confusion/ Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion/I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high/ Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man/Though my mind could think I still was a mad man/ I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say/ Carry on my wayward son,/ For there'll be peace when you are done/ Lay your weary head to rest/ Don't you cry no more."_

His voice was rough and the pitch was off but he sang it like it was a part of him. Alora turned off the video and put the phone away. "I asked him where he learned it and he said his friends taught it to him. That Sam and Dean taught him that song. He's not a Casanova, he's a good Man. A Man who loves to sing and tries so hard to cook even though he's so bad at it. He's a Man who loves stray cats and soft pretzels and Peanut Butter and Jelly and who wants so badly to be the kind of men you two want him to be even though that is, to be perfectly honest, impossible."

She had her hand clenched into fists against her stomach and she was on the verge of tears but she was so angry. "He's my Good Man and he's gone and I need your help to find him. So for once it's your turn to help him, like he's helped both of you."

They looked at each other then back at her. "We didn't say we wouldn't help, we were just surprised by this." Sam swept his arm around the apartment. "He's never mentioned you."

"Of course he hasn't. People he loves tend to end up dead." She snorted.

'Isn't that the truth?' Dean thought ruefully.

7 Months Ago:

Castiel closed the apartment door behind him and hung his work vest o a peg Alora had put up just for him. He smiled a little, she'd given him his own peg, his own shelf in the fridge and his own shower caddy for his toiletries. It was the most personal space he'd ever had and the most included he'd ever been anywhere, including in his time with Sam and Dean. He heard the sound of computer keys clicking away and as he walked past the kitchen he saw Alora sitting on the floor her laptop sitting on her crossed legs while she typed, a pair of headphones pushing her hair all over the place.

He knew she did transcriptions for work and it meant that she could work from home transcribing dictated notes from Doctors all over the country. She gave him an absent wave before returning to her typing and he went into the kitchen rolling up his sleeves and pulling a recipe from his pocket. He'd been wanting to try his hand at cooking and now seemed to be the perfect time to try. He smoothed the creased paper on the counter and read the instructions carefully then started finding the ingredients. Twenty minutes later he waved acrid smoke out of his face and coughed as the smoke detector screamed overhead and he surveyed the failed attempt in the frying pan. He was holding the frying pan in an ovenproof gloved hand when he heard Alora laughing.

Turning he saw her holding up her phone still laughing which made him smile a little and the flash went off. She'd taken a picture of him, he put the frying pan aside and sighed. "I am afraid I am not a good cook."

She walked over and grinned up at him then turned and held the phone up taking a picture of them together, he wasn't sure why she seemed to enjoy taking selfies of them but it made her happy which in turn made him happy, what made him even more happy was the arm she slid around his waist as she squeezed him lightly then let go. He was starting to get used to the casual physical affection and wondered what it meant when he actively sought her out specifically for affection. "Come on I got paid today, let's go get some Thai food."

He smiled, he liked Thai Food, almost as much as he liked Peanut Butter and Jelly. Alora put the frying pan in the sink and ran water in it before they left.


	4. Chapter 4

"So did he tell you what freaked him out enough to move you to a whole new city?" Dean asked dropping down on the edge of the bed.

"He only said that someone had found out about us and he needed to lure them elsewhere." Alora replied with a small sigh.

"Ok. Well the field for that is pretty narrow, Angels or Demons. He's got good reasons to be worried about either group finding you." Sam said.

"So how do we find him?" She asked.

"I take it you've tried prayer?" Dean asked.

She shook her head. "He told me never to pray for him. Said it would attract angels to me, he always comes and finds me."

"So… why come to us? Why not wait for him to show back up? I mean he goes AWOL all the time, why worry now?" Dean asked.

"Call it a gut feeling." She replied. "I _know_ something is wrong and he told me if something ever happened to him to go find you two. That Sam and Dean would know what to do."

Dean sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Castiel, come in Cas, you're freaking out your girlfriend."

They waited for a minute but when nothing happened Dean frowned and stood up. "Castiel, come on man."

They heard a faint flutter of wings and Dean relaxed turning only to pull his gun when a very angry, very not Castiel Angel stepped out of the tiny kitchenette. "I knew it was only a matter of time before she made that mistake." He said coldly.

"Wrong dickweed." Dean retorted and shot the angel before grabbing Aloras arm and running out of the apartment.

Sam threw a small vial of something and then tossed a lit zippo into the puddle of holy oil. When they reached the Impala the whole building was going up and Alora looked stricken. Dean sighed but Sam was the one who patted her shoulder. "It's just stuff, Cas would rather have you."

Alora swallowed and got into the car. "Your life is insane."

6 Months Ago:

Castiel swallowed nervously as he straightened his tie for the dozenth time, he fidgeted with the bouquet of flowers as he waited for Alora. He'd called and told her he wanted to have dinner with her at a nice restaurant to celebrate his promotion to manager of the convenience store. That was only part of it, over the past few months he'd come to develop feelings for her. He didn't know much about love but he thought he could be reasonably sure that he'd fallen in love with Alora and he wanted to tell her in a special way, in a special place.

He checked his phone, the reservation had been an hour ago and she still wasn't there, he felt the familiar weight of disappointment in his heart but it hurt so much more this time and he wondered if it was because he was human now. The waitstaff were giving him sympathetic looks as he stood and paid for the drinks he'd had while waiting. He walked home still holding the flowers though he wasn't sure why, his mind was so far away that at first he didn't hear his name being called. "Castiel!"

He finally turned and saw Alora running up behind him her face worried and apologetic, she was wearing a long dress she'd found when they went to a vintage store and that he secretly loved on her. "Cas I am so so sorry. The cab driver took me to the wrong Cristos. By the time I realized it was the wrong one I was all the way across town and I ran out of minutes on my phone and I couldn't get anyone to loan me their phone so I could call you." She ran her hands through her hair making it stick up all over the place. "I am so sorry, I know this was important to you."

He felt a smile tug at his mouth, she looked beautiful and flustered. "I understand. It was not your fault." He said and she smiled in relief.

Somehow that made it easier and he held the flowers out to her, she took them a little surprised and while she was surprised by that he took her hand in his which made her look up at him. "Alora, I kind of lied today. I did get promoted but I actually wanted to have dinner at a nice restaurant so I could tell you something…" He hesitated and then frowned when her eyes welled up a little.

"You're moving out now that you have the promotion aren't you? I mean… I'm happy for you, you've worked so hard and I'm so glad things are getting easier for you…" She took her hand back and hid her face in the flowers. "Im proud of you Cas, I really am and you're doing so well and I know you'll get a great apartment now that you're making more…" He frowned and pulled the flowers away from her face.

"Alora." He said softly which stopped the flood of anxiety driven words. "Alora I'm not moving out unless you want me to. I invited you to dinner because I wanted to tell you I love you."

He pulled the flowers out of her hands and smiled down at her for once feeling like he had a handle on things. "You've made my life better in so many ways Alora, I wake up excited to see you and wondering what new thing I will learn. I go to bed thinking about you and your smile and every day at work I think about all the things I want to tell you about my day. I love you Alora."

He watched the emotions fly across her face then she broke out in a dazzling grin and threw her arms around his neck leaning up on tiptoe to kiss him. It was cliched as hell and she couldn't care as he kissed her back holding her close.


	5. Chapter 5

Dean drove them to a safehouse nearby and they spent some time angel proofing the place, Alora was silent and withdrawn until it was all done. "So it's Angels then." She finally said sitting at the rickety table.

"Maybe." Dean said.

"Actually Dean I don't think it is, remember the Angel back there said he'd been waiting for her to slip up and call out for Cas." Sam replied pulling out his laptop.

"So my new apartment got torched for no reason?" Alora asked.

"It was a noble sacrifice." Dean said with a small smirk as he pulled out a six pack of beer. "It gave us a place to start. Sam is gonna work his mojo on the computer and see what might have caught Cas's eye while you fill me in on his hidden love life."

"Where did you live before Cas moved you?" Sam asked.

"Portland Oregon." She replied.

Sam started typing and Dean handed Alora a beer. "So what's Cas like at home?" He asked.

5 Months Ago:

Alora stretched and checked the clock. Cas would be home soon and she grinned. It was the start of an epic 4 day weekend and she had big plans for it. She'd found a little farm that would rent them a cabin and they could pick their own veggies and gather eggs and go berry picking in the woods. She was ready to get out of town for a few days, the further the better because if they were in town Cas's job would call him up and he'd feel compelled to go in and handle whatever had gone wrong.

She got up and started packing their duffle bag stopping to flip through the new prints she'd made off her phone. She smiled at a picture of Cas covered in flour from a baking mishap and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she put double sided tape on the back and found a precut piece of matte frame to put it into. She hung it next to some of her other favorites and checked the clock again. Cas was late, he wasn't usually late but if he'd stopped to hand out sandwiches to the homeless he'd be late for sure. She smiled, he tried to hand out food and toiletries at least once a week on his way home. It had brought them together and they both kept it up. She finished packing the bag and checked her phone hoping for a message from him. There was nothing and she started to worry, he didn't like talking about his past but she knew he had been involved in something dangerous in the past, he would draw symbols and hide them all over the house, if he heard a strange noise he would get tense and only relax once he had been able to find the source.

She sat back on the floor and pulled her laptop onto her legs, Cas had teased her about her penchant for sitting on the floor when she had a perfectly good couch but she liked the floor, it was good for her posture. She was trying to transcribe a small file when Castiel simply appeared in the room wearing the strangest getup. She yelped and dropped her computer as she scrabbled backward. "Shit! Cas what the hell?"

He sank to the floor in a beige trenchcoat and stared at her. "Alora...I'm sorry. I haven't been entirely honest with you."

She stared at him. "How did you just… poof… in here?"

"Before I met you I was an Angel of the Lord… my Grace was stolen and I was rendered human but my Grace has been returned… I am an Angel again." He decided it was easiest just to spit it out.

Alora stood up shakily still staring at him her face pale. "Are you kidding me?"

He stood as well and used a small fraction of power to make his battered wings appear in shadow on the wall. "Oh fuck… you're not kidding me.." She whispered and backed up.

"Alora…" He reached out for her and stopped when she backed up further.

"I am sorry I did not tell you, I never dreamt I would regain my Grace." He let his hands drop and looked down at the ground for a minute before looking at her.

She rested her hands on top of her head the fingers weaving through her short hair. "You… I… We… shit Cas how? Why? When?"

He tried to explain as best he could and after nearly an hour Alora was sitting on the floor again looking stunned and dazed, he approached her cautiously and knelt in front of her. "Alora?"

She ran her hands over her face before looking up at him from where she sat. "What does this mean… for us?"

His heart leapt at that, that she still wanted there to be an 'us'. He wanted so badly to hold her but he wasn't sure how she would react to that. "I don't know." He admitted. "I still love you, but I am a danger to you. My own kind hate me for all the wrong I have done, all the damage I have done. And there are other dangers." He stood up and looked around the apartment before walking over to the wall of photos his hand resting on his favorite of them together.

"I should leave to keep you safe. As a human no one was hunting me, as an Angel…" He froze when she collided with him her arms wrapping tightly around his waist.

"Don't you dare." She ground out and her body shook against him.

He turned in her arms and tilted her face up to him, she was crying and he hated that. He had seen her cry a few times and it always tore at him. He wiped the tears away but she kept crying. "Don't you dare just poof away. Please don't. We can figure this out."

He wrapped his arms around her cupping the back of her head and holding her while she cried and he realized he was crying too, crying for lost chances, stolen opportunities. For the danger he was to her and the fear he held that something would happen to her. When they finally calmed a little she looked up at him her face blotchy and eyes red. "We can figure this out." She whispered.

He nodded and smoothed her hair back. "Somehow." He said softly.


	6. Chapter 6

Castiel groaned wishing the chains were just a little longer. Just an inch longer and they wouldn't pull his shoulders so badly, each link was etched with enochian and a ring of burning holy oil kept him confined. He shifted trying again to ease the pain and flinched when the door opened.

"I'll ask you again. Where is she?" The sonorous voice asked.

"I will never tell you." Castiel replied and cried out when the lash struck him across his naked back.

"Where is she?" The voice asked again, it would be the only question asked.

Castiel shook his head and the lash struck again.

4 Months Ago:

Alora hummed under her breath while she planted nasturtiums next to the Yarrow in the planter box on the roof of the apartment building. She checked her notebook and nodded before dusting off her hands and climbing the fire escape back to her apartment. Living with Castiel as an Angel had taken some getting used to, he didn't work at the convenience store anymore and he was gone a lot these days but when he was home he was more intensely hers. He'd taught her how to draw the sigils and where. He'd entrusted her with the secrets to fending off and even killing an Angel or a demon and she'd dutifully written them all down. Her new life with Cas was about survival and safety as well as love, he worried about her constantly and since regaining his Grace he'd become more serious but he was still her Castiel.

She closed the window and checked the salt line before heading into the kitchen to wash her hands, while she was scrubbing dirt out from under her nails she heard the familiar flutter of wings and turned to see Cas smiling at her as he shucked his trenchcoat. It was a tacit sign that he was home, safe and with her.

He strode to her and lifted her up so he could kiss her and she wrapped her legs around his waist kissing him back. It had been two weeks since he'd been home and she missed him, he walked them to the bed and lowered her down to the mattress still kissing her, he tasted like rain and sweet cream and the cool wind at dawn and she loved it. Sometimes he tasted like smoke and whiskey and regret and she liked that less, it meant that he'd been with Sam and Dean and they'd pushed him to do something he didn't want to do. She wished she could hate the two men that had so much of a hold on him, there were days he'd come back his spirit fractured by something Dean had said but Cas had asked that she try to understand, to allow him to make amends for all the terrible things he'd done before he'd met her.

Cas drove those thoughts from her mind as he shed his shoes and his shirt, his hands deftly pulled her shirt off as he kissed down her neck then his hands slid under her back and lifted her up so he could worship her breasts in a way that had her arching and crying out for him. He groaned against her skin and her hands skimmed along his back. Her fingers found the scars and she smoothed her hands along them, he could heal almost anything but some wounds healed human slow. She'd memorized every scar, every flaw and mark on him. He peeled her pants down her legs taking the panties with them and then shed his own and pushed her a little further up the bed so he could join her his hands pushing her over the edge of orgasm.

It never ceased to amaze her that this Angel loved her, he'd always amazed her with the depth of his love as a human but now he was so much more. He'd lived for millennia, would live for many more and yet he loved her. He pressed the length of his body to hers and they locked together, her head swam and she swore she could feel some spark of the divine in him when they made love. He seemed almost frantic for her today and she shared the feeling.

When they were finished and lay twinned together she asked him how his mission had gone and she felt privileged that he shared the details with her, usually he was so secretive. When he was finished she rolled onto her side and dragged the pile of pictures she'd printed over so she could show him. He smiled and ran his hand up and down her side while they looked through them. These moments were his favorite.


	7. Chapter 7

"Found something!" Sam yelled and both Alora and Dean jumped. Alora had been reading one of the ancient books she'd found in the safehouse and Dean had been sleeping.

"What?" Dean grumbled.

"Well you know how when an Angel is…" He glanced at Alora and she raised an eyebrow. "Being tortured… they give off power spikes. Burning bushes, lightning strikes, miracles, stuff like that. Well I've tracked a rash of it to a small port town in Oregon."

Alora ran a hand through her hair again and closed her eyes. "Who would be torturing Castiel and why?"

"Well the Angels hate him for getting them kicked out of heaven, the Demons hate him because he's an angel, and there are a dozen or so magical races who hate him for helping us. It's dealers choice really." Dean replied.

"Dean…" Sam said softly and looked at Alora. "Alora Cas has been putting himself on the line with us for the last 5 years or better. He's done a lot of good but it's made him a few enemies."

"Frankly I'm amazed he managed to stay alive while he was human, I figured anything with a grudge would have munched him while he was mortal." Dean took a drink from the bottle and that was it for Alora.

She slapped the bottle out of his hand and sent it shattering to the floor. "You inconsiderate, egotistical, unfeeling bastard. He was alone. He lived on the street for God only knows how long before I met him. He was eating out of garbage cans and you couldn't be bothered to help him."

Dean looked at the remains of his beer soaking into the grimy floor then looked back at her clenching his jaw. She'd told them how She and Cas had met and then how they'd moved in together. He stood up slowly but Alora didn't budge, she was furious and sick to death of his cavalier attitude. "He never had a bad thing to say about either of you, as far as he was concerned you two were the best thing since the invention of peanut butter. He idolized you, made excuses for why you two left him alone, told me over and over about the good you two were doing in the world. 'Killing Monsters, Helping People, The Family Business' is how he said it and he was so damned proud of you both and the whole time you two couldn't be bothered could you?" She was breathing hard and her face was an angry shade of red.

"We were trying to shut down Hell!" Dean growled. "And when we realized it would kill Sam we had to stop but it broke something in him and I was a little busy trying to save my Brother."

"And Castiel isn't your brother too?!" She spat rising onto the balls of her feet and getting right in his face. "That's what he called you both. His Brothers. His only family."

Dean backed away abruptly and Alora wasn't prepared for that. She swayed forward and fell hitting her head on the table. Sam tried to help her up but she shook him off pressing her hand to the cut on her head and stalked out of the building slamming the door behind her.

Three Months Ago:

Castiel watched Alora sleep and smiled gently, she was a constant wonder to him with her honest smiles and her acceptance of him and his many many faults. He didn't sleep anymore now that he had his Grace back and he rarely ate anymore, it was all so much less enjoyable now that he was an Angel again, all but one thing, no matter how many times he saw her, touched her, smelled or tasted her she was as amazing to him as the first time.

He ran his fingers gently through the ends of her hair and frowned when he saw a single strand of silver amongst the dark brown, he touched the strand letting it sit on his finger and then looked into her face, he thought he knew her face, thought he could name every freckle, every contour and slight imperfection but there were new marks on her face. One or two new lines near the corners of her eyes, small curving lines slowly carving themselves around the corners of her mouth from where she smiled but his eyes flicked back to the one silver strand and he felt terror curl in his gut.

He thought nothing had changed with his returned status as an Angel, she still loved him, he still adored her, they still had moments that she called perfectly imperfect couple moments but that strand of silver told him that while he would remain as he was until the end of time she would age and die. He thought about how much Sam and Dean had changed in the few years that he'd known them. They had collected so many hurts, so many scars and age was carvings its implacable mark on them both while he watched. He would lose them both, he would lose the woman sleeping so peacefully beside him and he clenched his teeth to stifle the rising tide of anguish that threatened to swamp him. He couldn't lose them, he couldn't stand to watch them die, any of them, not Sam, not Dean and most especially not Alora.

He stood up carefully so as not to wake her. He had a lot of research to do, plans that needed to be made and he knew just where to start. He kissed her gently and vanished in a flutter of wings to the Bunker where the greatest repository of arcane knowledge in the world had answers for him if he could keep Sam and Dean from discovering his plans long enough to find them.


	8. Chapter 8

Sam followed Alora out into the oppressive heat of the humid summer air but gave her some space while she leaned on the car a wad of cloth pressed against the cut on her forehead. He tilted his head looking her over. They'd been traveling together for a few days but he'd never bothered to really look at her, there was something compelling about her that made him have to look at her more closely, she was pretty but he'd seen a lot of pretty in his life so he went with his gut and looked beyond the pretty.

She had stood up to his brother which for a woman who wasn't a hunter or a monster was pretty rare. She'd thrown hard truths at Dean and been eloquent with it so she was educated but she dressed in vintage third and fourth hand clothes that had seen better days so not well off, the studio apartment that she'd been sharing with Cas was in a run down section of town too but she hadn't seemed out of place or uncomfortable so she was used to living poor.

"If you keep staring at me I'm gonna start charging you." She said irritably.

"You know you've told us how you met Cas, you've given us lots of details about your life right up to about ten months ago but nothing personal any further back." He said shoving his hands in his pockets.

She shrugged. "It's not important. This is about Cas and finding him."

"I think it is important. It could be why Cas is missing, after all that Angel back there said he was waiting for you to call out for Cas so what if this is just a ploy to get you." Sam replied with a shrug.

"It's not. I'm nobody special, never was, never will be." She replied shortly and winced when her frown pulled on the cut on her forehead.

"You're special to Cas." He pointed out.

"And he's the only part of my life that is special in any way." She sighed.

"Who were you a year ago?" Sam asked and watched emotions chase across her face, sadness, anger, fear, shame; that last one surprised him.

"I…" She started then stopped and closed her eyes taking a deep breath. "I was a screw up. Ran away from home when I was 16 because I thought I knew everything and then started running around with the wrong people. I got in trouble, got sent to juvie then got out and just kept screwing up.I stole, I did drugs, I drank and I just kept choosing to do the wrong thing."

He waited and after a few minutes she kept going. "I finally hit rock bottom, I got caught holding a boyfriends crack and went to jail for a year and then when I got out I couldn't get a job so I ended up homeless. It was absolute rock bottom, I had nothing and nobody. I started hooking just to eat and I felt so shitty, I decided I was going to kill myself and I climbed out onto the overpass ledge." She leaned heavily on the side of the car her free hand shaking.

"I was going to jump, I really was and then I just… couldn't. I was so mad at myself for wanting to die so I climbed down and started trying to figure a way out. It wasn't easy and I slipped up a lot. I was still homeless and I still had to eat so I kept hooking but I started being smarter about it. I had gotten my GED in juvie so I started taking online community college courses at the library and while I was there some snot nosed little kid taught me how to hack into computer systems. I hacked my file and erased all the jail time so I could get a decent job and then started saving every cent so I could get an apartment. It took me five years but I finally got off the street."

They stood in silence for a few minutes before Sam spoke again. "So there's no reason anything supernatural would be after you?"

Alora threw her hands up letting the wad of cloth flutter in her hand. "Like I said, none."

Sam was staring at her and she frowned. "What?"

"You're not bleeding anymore." He said slowly.

"Well thank God for something." She muttered.

"No I mean, the cut is gone. Like it never happened." He said and walked over taking the rag.

There was blood staining the dirty fabric and some on Aloras fingers as she reached up to touch the smooth skin but there was no cut. Sam gave her a worried look and motioned for her to follow him back into the safe house. She followed him her mind whirling with the implications. 'What is happening to me?' She thought as Sam walked Dean through the revelation.

Two Months Ago:

Castiel sat on the edge of the bed and watched Alora, she'd complained of a headache all day and had spiked a fever shortly after dinner, he'd noticed that she got sick easily and when he'd asked her about it she'd said she'd been that way since she was a child. 'I'll catch every flu bug and cold that walks by. I was born early so my immune system isn't the best and I screwed it up worse with the drugs.'

He had handed her the fever reducers she'd asked for and considered healing her of the illness with his power but he was conserving his strength for his plan. The plan to keep her safe forever. He was so close to having everything he would need. Just a few more ingredients and he'd be ready. He stroked her hair as she slept, her skin was hot and dry and the heat worried him but she had assured him she'd be alright.

She shifted a little in her sleep and whimpered and he leaned down to kiss her cheek. When she relaxed he smiled a little then checked the clock, he didn't have to be back at the bunker for a while. He slipped out of his coat and shoes before sliding under the blanket and pulled her in against his chest. She felt so frail now that he had his grace back but he knew she was stronger than he would ever be. She had picked him up piece by piece and helped put him back together. His hand traced the delicate bones of her hand where it lay on his chest and he smiled at the long digits that danced on the keyboard as she typed. He remembered watching her bake bread and the way the long clever fingers had squeezed and shaped the pale rich dough.

Hs body stirred as he thought of other things she'd done with those clever fingers, he'd had sex before but somehow every prior experience paled beside the nights spent with Alora. He pushed those memories aside and looked down at her face as she nuzzled in against his chest. He could hear Sam and Dean somewhere in the cacophony of voices that filled his every waking moment once his Grace had returned. So many people still prayed even though it was ridiculously apparent that God had abandoned this world and the myriad beings that dwelled upon it. Sam and Dean weren't praying but he always heard them anyway, he sought out their voices just to reassure himself that they were ok.

He wanted to introduce Alora to Sam and Dean but he was afraid of what would happen. Too many times he'd seen the two men find happiness only to have it stolen from them by the life they led. It was as if they were cursed, they were only given moments of happiness, of contentment and then the brutality of their lives, their destiny would rise up and crash down on them and leave wreckage in its wake. He couldn't bear the idea of that happening to his relationship with Alora so he kept those two halves of his life compartmentalized. He kept Alora safe and did his best to do the same for Sam and Dean while he pushed away the guilt of lying to Sam and Dean about his whereabouts when he vanished for days or weeks at a time. They were seasoned hunters who had told him time and again they could manage without him, so for the time being he contented himself to hold Alora while she struggled through the illness that gripped her.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam glanced into the backseat where Alora lay curled in a ball sleeping. She had a hoodie pulled up over her head and her hands were crammed into the pocket while she slept. He could admit that when she wasn't yelling at them or asking more questions than they had answers for that she was pretty. He could see why Castiel was attached to her as well, she was strong, smart and he could tell that she was a compassionate, kind person, the kind of person who would be able to handle Cas at his most guilt ridden.

"How did we not see this sooner?" Dean asked softly.

"See what?" Sam asked.

"Cas having a girlfriend. How did we miss that he had a girlfriend this whole time?" Dean glanced over at his brother and Sam shrugged.

"He's never really expressed much interest in women…"

Dean gave a small grin. "Heh, yeah… you know for a while I thought maybe he was into dudes."

Sam's lips quirked. "You know I had that thought too. But he never seemed interested in that sort of thing. Friends yeah, he likes having friends but he's like a kid… you never really think of them growing up and having sex…"

Dean wrinkled his nose. "Dude I don't want to think about Cas having sex. I mean what is that even like? He only just started understanding Star Wars references."

Sam shook his head and sighed. "I suppose they all grow up eventually."

Dean shifted and they rode in silence for a few minutes before Dean spoke up again. "Do you think she was lying about the healing thing?"

Sam considered it then shook his head. "No. She was too shocked by that to have known."

"Then how did it happen?" Dean asked.

"Maybe it's what happens when you have sex with an Angel?" Dean suggested.

"That's not in any of the Lore." Sam retorted.

"Neither is people regularly boning an angel." Dean replied.

Sam nodded slowly. "It's probably why that angel wanted her."

They heard the leather of the seat behind them creak and Sam glanced into the back but Alora was still asleep, she had just turned onto her other side. Dean spoke up softly. "Well whatever happened she's screwed."

"What? Why?" Sam asked.

"Dude have you seen our lives?" Dean asked rhetorically. "And she's sleeping with the Angel Equivalent of Mr Magoo. There's nothing safe or sane about our lives and now that her connection to Cas is out in the open she's at the top of every supernatural bad guys hit list if only to hurt Cas which would hurt us. She's a walking talking target."

Sam thought about it and sighed. "You're right. So what do we do about it?"

Dean shrugged. "I have no idea. I'm still stuck on Cas has a smoking hot girlfriend."

Sam chuckled and left his brother to his thoughts, in the back Alora lay staring at the leather of the backseat her heart hammering and he mind whirling with the implications for her life. She'd known that with Cas being an Angel again things were different but she hadn't realized how different. Her heart squeezed painfully but she controlled her breathing and kept pretending to be asleep. 'Oh Cas what is going on…?'

One Month Ago:

Castiel stood staring at the displays of brightly colored flowers remembering the first bouquet he'd given Alora the day he'd confessed that he loved her. His head was tilted to the side as he looked at the flowers and he didn't realize how long he'd been standing there until he heard a pair of women whispering. "He's been there for an hour Doris."

"I know but he's not hurting anyone."

He shifted and started picking flowers from the display assembling a bouquet that was as bright and joyous as Alora. The woman who accepted the payment for the flowers smiled kindly at him. "She must be a very lucky woman."

He gave her a smile that surprised her as he took the flowers in the brand new vase he'd chosen. "I'm the lucky one." He said and turned to leave.

"You remind me of my late husband. He used to take his time choosing flowers too." She patted his hand. "You're lucky to have each other."

He smiled again and left the shop. Tonight was the night. He'd spent weeks finding the ingredients for the spell and he was sure it would work, he just needed her to be as open and receptive as possible. He decided that in the interests of saving power he'd walk up the six flights of stairs to the apartment the way he had when he was human and as he climbed he reflected on the last 10 months he'd spent with her. When he let himself into the apartment he heard her music playing softly and her singing softly along, he heard the clink of dishes as well. She only sang when she was cleaning and he smiled stopping inside the door so he could hear her sing. When she stopped he crept up behind her and kissed her cheek which made her gasp and smile brightly at him. "Cas! You said you weren't going to be home this week."

He smiled gently at her and held the flowers up. "I could not stay away."

She took the flowers and smelled them then leaned up on tiptoes to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and savored the taste of her lips under his. When they parted she added water to the vase and set the flowers out next to the window where the late afternoon sun made them seem brighter. He stripped off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves looking around the brightly lit apartment, his home more than heaven or the bunker ever were. The song switched to a jazzy number and he grinned reaching over tugging her into his arms and dancing with her while she laughed. "You're a lot more relaxed today. What's the occasion?"

He nuzzled her neck and laid a soft kiss on the skin. "Sam and Dean are safe, the world is safe for now, no one is hunting me at the moment and I am home where I belong."

She turned her head and caught his lips with hers. "All fantastic reasons to be in a good mood." She murmured as they swayed around the livingroom.

Later that evening after Cas had managed to eat a small portion of spaghetti, despite his insistence that he couldn't really taste the food anymore, he sat with her on the couch watching her favorite Godzilla movie while she sipped a glass of wine and nibbled on popcorn. He didn't even try to pay attention to the movie, he never understood them anyway, instead he watched her watching the movie, the way she smiled and mouthed the lines alongside the actors and her mischievous grin when she pantomimed astonishment. When the credits rolled she stretched and he smiled as her, she smiled back and stood up to turn off the DVD player. "I love these stupid old movies." She said softly.

He chuckled and stood up wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling the back of her neck. "I cannot say the same. I never understand them but I love watching you watch them."

She turned in his arms and looped her arms around his neck and rubbed her nose against his. "This from the man who can talk for hours about Star Wars being an allegory for the Iliad."

He smiled and ran his fingers through her short dark hair. "It had many allegorical sources…" He started and she put a finger against his lips laughing.

He nipped at her finger then leaned in to kiss her, the kiss grew in heat and he was soon running his hands up under the shirt she wore. She walked them backwards to the bedroom and fell back on the bed with him kneeling above her. Their lovemaking was slow and sweet and while they laid together on the bed after he traced his fingers along her back, she didn't realize there was any pattern to the tracery but he was slowly tracing lines of power into her skin. She was as open to him as she ever would be in the post coital moment and he used the openness to start the spell. She relaxed and dozed in the blissed out haze and he used a small piece of his power to summon the vial of brightly glowing liquid into his hand. He warmed it in his hands before pouring it onto her back and began massaging it into her skin where it sparked against the lines he'd traced along her back. He closed his eyes and prepared for the final step, she was laying completely passive on the bed and he knew that meant he'd prepared the spell properly, she'd wake and think only that she'd fallen asleep instead of what he'd truly done which was place her temporarily in an enchanted sleep so he could tamper with her soul.

He carefully extracted her soul into the bottle that had held the glowing liquid and then pulled his own angel blade out and pricked his throat. His Grace surged out of the small puncture and he held the bottle to the injury capturing the smallest portion inside with Alora's soul. He quickly healed the puncture in his throat and set his blade aside and held the bottle up to inspect the contents.

Aloras soul was a dancing shining thing, motes of brilliant white light danced in the paler blue of his Grace and he gave the bottle a gentle shake to integrate them more fully before he started speaking in enochian casting the spell which would link her life with his Angelic Grace. He carefully turned her over onto her back and opened her mouth and carefully tipped the contents of the vial into her mouth, the Grace infused Soul slid back into her and she shifted a little her veins glowing for a fraction of a second before settling into stillness again. He checked her over and felt a sense of relief fill him, so long as she contained even a fraction of his Grace she would live as long as he could, she would not age, she would never sicken again and she would heal anything short of a deathblow from an angel blade. He lifted the enchanted sleep and gathered her in close against him as she stirred in a more normal human sleep, if all went well by the time he had to explain to her why she was not aging the world would be a far safer place.


	10. Chapter 10

Sam managed to narrow the signs down to a Warehouse Complex and they spend hours searching each of them looking for Castiel. Alora had been unusually quiet while they searched and Sam was starting to get worried, in his experience when women went silent it was usually the calm before the shit storm. Dean understood what the silence heralded as well because he got more and more tense the longer it took for them to find Cas. After a whole day of searching they still hadn't found Cas and it was while they were driving back to the motel that he broke the tense silence. "Look I'm sure we'll find him, this isn't an exact science."

She gave him a flat unhappy look and he felt the urge to duck his head like he was ten years old again and had gotten caught smoking. He sighed and held his hands up as she sat on the bed and took her shoes off. She rubbed her eyes and slumped. "I'm sorry Dean, I know this isn't your fault."

He sat on the other bed and leaned his elbows on his knees. You know I wish I could tell you that we'll find him and everything will be ok but I can't."

She nodded. "Yeah, I know. You're lives aren't exactly 'safe or sane'." She quoted.

He winced. "You heard that huh?"

She gave him a halfhearted smile. "Yeah well, you guys aren't as quiet as you think. It's ok, I get it. And I can even understand the worry over what you guys have to see as a whole new set of problems. I just wish I knew who took him or even why."

Dean reached over and awkwardly patted her shoulder as she rubbed at her eyes blinking fast. "When we find Cas we'll get an explanation but you should know he has a history of doing things he think are right and figuring out later that they were supremely bad ideas."

She gave a watery laugh. "You know he told me the same thing about you two once."

He chuckled. "Yeah well, we're all really good at screwing up."

She sniffed and wiped her watery eyes again. "I just hope he's alive to yell at."

Sam set the duffle bag on the floor and made sure the door was locked. Trust me if Cas was dead we'd know it. Someone would be bragging about it."

She looked over at him frowning. "How many people want him dead?"

"People? Not so many, supernaturals though…" Sam trailed off seeing the look on her face.

"It's why we live in a magically protected bunker and don't get involved with anyone. Our lives are too dangerous, Cas knew that but he obviously loved you enough to take the risk." Dean said.

She stood up and ran her hands through her hair making it stick up all over the place. "So what do we do now?"

"We get some rest and try again in the morning." Sam replied.

"Rest… sure… with the man… angel, I love being tortured out there somewhere and supernatural critters out for my face." She muttered and walked to the bathroom. "I need a shower."

She shut the door with a sharp snap and Sam gave Dean a sympathetic look, Dean shrugged back and grabbed the remote.

Castiel could barely see through the blood on his face, the heat of the ring of holy fire made sweat drip into his eyes and he couldn't feel his arms anymore. The Voice had returned several times asking the same thing over and over and he'd refused to tell him where Alora was. He hoped that she was with Sam and Dean in the bunker, of all the people in the world he knew Sam and Dean alone could keep her safe, he knew he didn't have much longer before the Voice would kill him and pursue alternative methods of finding Alora.

He cursed himself as he huddled chained and bleeding in the circle of fire, he'd been arrogant enough to assume that the spell had gone unnoticed, that the love of his life, his whole world would be safe now that she was functionally immortal. What he hadn't counted on was the safety measures in place in Heaven to keep humans from getting ahold of and misusing an Angels Grace. It had set off all kinds of warning bells in the halls of Heaven and after all the losses heaven had taken over the last few years they had become incredibly territorial over what little they had left. So many weapons had been lost, so much damage done that they felt the need to protect the last vestiges of what they held sacred and so much of their divinity and power was wrapped up in their Grace that the idea of a mere human possessing even a fraction of it had sent many of them into a fury.

They'd begun hunting her with a focused determination that stunned even him and he'd seen them wipe out entire continents. He felt the air move and knew the Voice was back. "You are running out of time Castiel. Tell me where the Abomination resides."

He spat blood into the fire and screamed when a lance of light speared his back. When he could breath again the Voice asked again and he shook his head unable to speak past the pain. "If you do not tell us where she is we will lay waste to this country. We will smite it with fire and blood."

Castiel shook his head his eyes going wide, he knew that alone wouldn't kill her but she would be the only one left in the wasteland and they'd be able to find her by the sheer fact that she was the only survivor. "You can't… you won't… please…" He rasped blood dripping down his chin.

"You have caused this Castiel. You are the source of her doom. Now tell me where she is and we may be able to simply remove the Grace you imbued her with and let her live." The Voice urged him and Castiel felt his resolve faltering at the thin hope.

He opened his mouth but then realized that they couldn't let her live, she had knowledge of an Angels Grace now, she had to die to protect that secret. He closed his mouth and shook his head then screamed again as another lance of light pierced him.


	11. Chapter 11

Alora woke screaming her back on fire. Sam and Dean jolted awake as well pointing guns into the dark as Alora screamed. "They're killing him." She screamed her eyes burning blue in the dark and Dean felt a sick feeling in his stomach.

Sam put up his gun and crouched in front of Alora. "You can feel him?"

She was gasping for breath as she sobbed. "I can feel him… he's so hurt… they're killing him."

Sam took her hands in his and made her look at him with those glowing eyes. "Alora I know it hurts but can you focus on him, can you find him?"

She took great gasping breaths and tried to push through the pain, she wasn't even really seeing Sam or the motel room, Dean was up and moving grabbing guns and tools while Sam tried to use her as a compass to find Castiel. She closed her eyes and could see the ring of fire that poured heat onto her skin. It felt like her skin should blister and crack from the heat, her arms burned from where they were held above her head, the worst pain was in her back, she could feel her wings pinned to her back with spears of light making every breath agony. She screamed and wrenched away from that awful pain and shot up through the air out of the circle of flames. She rose higher into the night, the moon illuminating the world.

She could see Castiel below her bleeding, dying and she screamed at the pain in her heart. She had to find him, had to save him. She looked around frantically searching for landmarks and found what she needed. Suddenly with a gasp she opened her eyes clutching at Sam. "We missed it… we missed one warehouse, it looked torn down, like a pile of rubble so we didn't search it… an illusion…" She was shaking so hard Sam had to hold her up or she'd have collapsed.

Sam leaned her against the headboard and grabbed his gear while he crammed his feet into his boots, she weakly started to get her own shoes but Dean just scooped her up and tossed her shoes to Sam. They ran to the car putting her in the backseat and Dean peeled out of the lot and drove towards the warehouses they'd searched earlier. Sam grilled her on Castiel's condition while she got her shoes on some of her strength returning.

Dean slammed the car into park and he started grabbing stuff out of the trunk while Sam helped Alora out of the car. In less than five minutes they were running full tilt towards the collapsed warehouse. As soon as they got within ten feet the illusion fell away and they could see the sigils and marks that hid the building from view. Dean handed Sam weapons and then after a moment of hesitation handed Alora an angel blade. "Wait for them to get right up against you and then ram that in up to the hilt." He said and kicked the door open.

Sam and Dean kept Alora at their backs through the worst of the fighting, there were only a handful of angels and they clearly weren't expecting Sam and Dean so it didn't take long to kill them and move deeper into the warehouse. Somehow Alora got separated from them and a door slammed shut and locked of its own accord leaving her trapped in the hallway alone, she heard the flutter of wings and turned her face hopeful only to see an unfamiliar male figure standing behind her. He sneered at her. "So you are the human he defiled himself for."

She felt her heart trying to climb up out of her throat and she swallowed, despite looking like a middle manager from corporate america his eyes were empty and she could feel the violent potential dripping from him. "I don't know what you mean." She whispered knowing he would hear her.

He stalked towards her and she backed up but he stopped a few feet away. "Castiel gave you a fraction of his Grace to safeguard your pathetic mortal life and you don't even know the gift he has bestowed upon you."

He shook his head and his face showed so much disgust. "You humans are filthy hairless apes with barely enough self awareness to understand your place in the universe and yet he is so enamoured of you all. He has destroyed himself time and again for you and I cannot fathom why."

"He said it was because God loved us and he loved God so he takes care of God's work." She said carefully.

The Angel in front of her spat on the floor. "You are filthy vermin. Not God's Work, not after all the depraved things you've all done to yourselves, to the paradise he left you. You yourself are the perfect example of how disgusting humanity truly is. A runaway junkie whore, you destroyed your body with chemicals, you despoiled your body and gave it away for temporary comfort and yet you think to hold the Grace of an Angel. You sicken me!" He screamed the last at her and she felt her heart stutter.

It was all true and she knew it, she knew how damaged she was and all the terrible things she'd done since running away at age 16. That someone as truly good as Castiel loved her was a constant amazement to her and now… now she knew that she held a tiny piece of his Grace inside her. A tiny part of what made him an angel and she held it inside her damaged soul. She knew she didn't deserve his love and that made it all the more precious to her.

"I am sickening." She admitted and looked up at the angel. "I am, objectively speaking, a terrible person. I've lied and stolen and sold my body. I've damaged it with drugs and I'm still lying and stealing because I am not who my files say I am. I have stolen the heart of someone so much better than I am and I have no idea why he loves me. I don't know why he gave me his Grace. I'm not worth it. I'm not worthy of him.

He frowned and took a step towards her. "You admit your perfidy?"

She nodded and looked down at the floor tears sliding down her cheeks and he came closer. "Have you lain with him?" He asked and she blinked at him.

"You mean sex?" She asked.

"Yes." He hissed angrily.

"Yeah… we've had sex…" She didn't know why that was important but he snarled something and a crack of lightning made his wings stand out on the wall as he lunged at her.

"You are a disgusting abomination. You foul disgusting ape! I would have been content to strip the Grace from you but now I have to kill you." He snarled his hands around her throat as she gasped and kicked trying to free herself.

The world was going in streamers of color as he choked the life from her but she remembered Deans instructions and had just enough strength left to let go of his wrists and grab for the angel blade. She gasped and her struggles weakened as she tried to bring the blade up and for a moment she thought she saw Castiel over the other angels shoulder. She pushed the blade into the angels stomach and he let her go screaming in pain as the blade stuck out not even six inches into his gut. He yanked it out and tossed it aside as blood poured down his front. She collapsed coughing and watched in dismay as the wound healed. "I will kill you slowly for that." He snarled and reached for her again only to stop short.

She watched as the veins and bones in his face lit up from the inside and saw the point of another blade jut through his stomach, her vision was still gray around the edges and she slid down to the floor still coughing. The angel collapsed and she saw Castiel standing in the other Angels place. He swayed still covered in blood but he managed to stumble over to her and dropped to his knees gathering her in close to his chest. "Alora…" He rasped and she managed to get her arms around him fresh tears pouring down her face.

She barely registered Sam and Dean running down the hall towards them as Castiel held her. "Alora I am so sorry." He cupped her face and looked at her.

"I am so mad at you." She sobbed and clung to him.

"I know." He said.

"I was so scared." She was shaking.

"I know." His voice was harsh and he shook too.

"I just want to go home." She pressed her head against his chest.

"Ok." He murmured stroking her hair.

Sam and Dean got them up on their feet and out to the car. "We need to put space between us and this warehouse, other Angels will probably show up soon." Dean rumbled getting them into the car and turning it back towards the interstate.

Castiel was regaining his strength rapidly, once Dean had extinguished the flames and released the chains Castiel's Grace had reasserted itself and was working to heal him. His rage at seeing the Voice choking Alora had given him strength and his fear for her life had made him swift. Now she was huddled in her seat her arms wrapped around herself as she struggled with her own inner demons and the knowledge of what he'd done. He desperately wanted to hold her but knew he had no right anymore.

The drove all night, everyone lost in their own thoughts until they reached the bunker. Sam helped Alora out and she winced a little as bruises asserted themselves but she stood in the early morning sun and rubbed her hands along her pant legs before following Sam into the bunker. Castiel took a deep breath and Dean squeezed his shoulder. "Look dude, you fucked up. I've been there but you Love her, and she loves you back, she still loves you so maybe if you apologize really hard and promise to quit dicking around without telling her she might just forgive you."

Castiel gave him a grateful look but shook his head. "I tampered with her soul Dean. She can't forgive that. No one could."

Dean faced his friend squarely. "She fought for you, she called me all kinds of names defending you, she traveled from freaking Oregon to find us on a gut feeling for you dude. You don't do those things for people you don't love enough to forgive. She's pissed, she has a right to be. I'm pissed but that's nothing new."

"Why are you angry?" Castiel asked.

"Well first off you never told us about your smoking hot girlfriend, you never told us what happened when you lost your Grace, you hid things from us and you did something to her that basically makes her an Angel Lite. These are the kind of things you need to tell your brothers." Dean gave him a light smack upside the back of the head.

"You've never called yourself my brother before." Castiel said slowly rubbing the back of his head.

"I figured you knew, Alora told me I was wrong. She's a tough one, smart and when she's trained up a bit she could be dangerous." Dean shrugged and frowned at the fear that crossed Castiel's face.

"I never wanted this life for her." He said looking down.

"Neither did my Mom. No one wants this life Cas, but when you stayed with her after getting your Grace back you kinda brought her in. And now she's in too deep to just walk away." Dean leaned against the car and watched Castiel.

"I have been selfish and now she will suffer for it." Castiel felt like crying, how did he always manage to ruin the good things in his life.

"Maybe. Or maybe you need each other. You're happy man. Even I could see it, the last 6 months since you got your Grace back you've been a happier person. She fills you with light and you are better man. That's all guys like us can ever hope for. To find that one person who accepts us warts and all. But now you gotta help her. She can't keep living with her head in the sand. You gotta train her to protect herself or another Angel is gonna destroy her." Dean thought about Lisa and Ben and how he'd had to let them go to protect them, he thought about how it felt like losing part of his soul and he never wanted Cas or Sam to have to feel that.

"Cas. Do you love her?" He couldn't believe he was pulling a chick flick moment but to give one of his brothers a chance to be happy he'd suffer the indignity.

"I do." Castiel replied looking at Dean with so much intensity Dean thought he might catch fire from the look.

"Then you go in there and you beg her for forgiveness, you promise her whatever you have to and even if she says she wants some time apart you give it to her then keep fighting for her because she will save you man. She already has twice now. Third time's the charm." Dean clapped his brother on the back and nudged him towards the bunker. "Now let's go inside before I start growing boobs with all this feelings crap."

Castiel smiled a little, that was the Dean he knew. He swallowed his fear and walked into the bunker with Dean and went to find Alora.


	12. Chapter 12

Alora raised her face from the sink and watched water drip off her chin, she was trying not to think about the Angel who had tried to choke her to death, or Cas who had killed him to save her except now it was too late and she was thinking about it as her eyes caught sight of the bruises around her throat then suddenly her eyes were glowing faintly. She gasped and backed away from the sink as the bruises around her throat started to fade out, she carefully touched the marks as they disappeared along with the ache and the pain when she breathed.

She was so fascinated by the process that she jumped and gave a little yelp when someone knocked on the door then Castiel's voice. "Alora… can we talk please?"

She tried to slow her breathing while her heart hammered in her chest. She'd been so sure that once she found Cas again everything would go back to normal but after the cut on her head healed and the fight in the warehouse she felt completely off balance. Nothing was right anymore and she didn't know if it would ever be ok again. She heard the door shift a little but Cas didn't try the handle, she thought he might be leaning against the door. "Alora, I am so sorry you got involved in this. It is my fault, please just tell me you are healed, let me know you are not injured."

He sounded so beaten down, so lost and she pressed her hand against the door. "I'm ok." She finally answered. "The bruises are gone... Are… are you ok now?"

"My wounds are healed." He replied his voice muffled through the door.

She let out a breath, when she'd seen him surrounded by fire, his back pierced by lances of light in her vision she had been terrified that he would die from the wounds, he had still been covered in blood during the car ride and it had made her stomach roil knowing that it was all his blood, that he'd been injured so badly. "Alora…" Her heart stuttered at the catch in his voice when he said her name. "Alora, I know I have no right to ask you for anything but please, I need to explain."

She frowned remembering the way her eyes glowed and she was angry. He had done something to her without asking and she wrenched the door open. "Yeah, you do need to explain. What did you do to me?"

She stared up at him hands on her hips, he had cleaned the blood off his face and with his trenchcoat missing he looked half finished and a little menacing in a torn blood stained shirt, all that kept him from looking like an extra in a slasher flick was the heartbroken look on his face, he took a deep breath and she tried to steel her heart against the urge to grab him and smooth that pain away but she needed answers. "I imbued your soul with a small fraction of my Grace." He replied.

"Why?" Her voice was flat and hard.

He closed his eyes and swallowed. "Because I couldn't lose you. I'm an Angel, I have lived since the dawn of time and I will live until the end of time but I could not stand the thought of living one more day without you so I had to do something."

"How? How did you imbue my soul with your Grace?"

"A spell…" He replied softly. "I put you in an enchanted sleep and took your soul out of your body and bonded a fraction of my Grace to it then put it back."

Her mind spun and she took a step away from him. "That night… when we watched Godzilla… I woke up feeling strange. I thought it was the spaghetti…" She pressed her hands against her chest and stared at him.

He nodded. "I needed you as open as possible so I could remove your soul and add my Grace."

She wanted to scream at him, to hit him and to run as far and as fast from him as she could but she knew no matter how far or fast she ran he' be able to find her. He was an Angel after all. Her breath was coming fast and her eyes burned while she struggled to process it. Tears started to slid down her cheeks and he reached for her. "Don't." She said her voice cracking. "How could you? How could you do that without even talking to me?! After everything you know about me, after all the things you've told me you've done and regretted and you didn't even ask me!"

She backed up and her back hit the doorframe stopping her. "You tricked me." She whispered. "You gave me that amazing night just so you could take my soul…"

"No… no Alora…" He rasped and took a step forward reaching for her. "I didn't take it, you still have it. I just added my Grace. You are the only thing in my long life that has made me feel worthwhile." He couldn't decide where to put his hands and settled for putting them on her shoulders.

She wouldn't look at him and he took a shaky breath. "Before you I was lost, so lost and nothing seemed to matter anymore. I couldn't see how the world was worth saving anymore until you gave me a sandwhich and a reason to keep living. And then my Grace was returned and you still loved me even though I was an Angel, even knowing my role in all the terrible things that had been happening in the world the last few years. I was stupid and blind and selfish and so desperate to keep you." He was crying now too staring down at her as she stared at the floor her shoulders shaking.

"I was wrong Alora. I was selfish and I knew better than to do this to you and I am so sorry. I know you can't forgive what I have done but please, please let Sam and Dean help keep you safe. You won't ever have to see me again I promise."

He let go of her shoulder and backed away wiping his face. "I am sorry Alora. I will always be sorry that I broke your trust in me."

He turned to walk away and was stunned when her arms wrapped around his waist her body slamming into him from behind and her tears painted themselves hot down his back. "I am still mad at you, and I'm not ready to forgive you for doing what you did but I still love you Castiel. You saved me too and I'm not ready to give that up yet."

He turned in her arms and held her close against him. "I love you Alora. And I will do whatever it takes to earn your trust and forgiveness."


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everyone! I am blown away by the number of people who have read this fic! Do you want to see more of Alora? Please leave me some reviews!**

Three months Later:

Sam and Dean returned to the Bunker after a long messy hunt for a family of Djinn tired, hungry and ready for a few days of rest. What they walked into was a full on Thanksgiving was setting a tray of sliced turkey on one of the long library tables. She'd been living at the Bunker full time since they'd saved Castiel, when she'd tried to leave more Angels had shown up and tried to kill her so it was decided that she was safest at the Bunker until she was able to protect herself. She and Castiel were working on rebuilding their relationship, some days were easier than others but they were making progress.

Castiel came out holding a bowl of mashed potatoes, he gave Sam and Dean a small smile. "Alora says that Thanksgiving is the best time to rebuild Family Bonds." He said by way of explanation.

Sam looked at Dean and smiled. "Let us get washed up."

When they were all sitting around the table Sam and Dean watched the couple. They were holding hands under the table while Alora ate and Cas pushed his small amount of food around on his plate. The spell that had imbued her soul with the Grace of an Angel was, so far, irreversible so it looked like they would be together forever if Alora could forgive Castiel.

When the meal was done Alora poured out a small glass of wine for all of them. "There was a tradition in my family when I was a child. We would give remember the worst thing that happened to us that year and then give thanks for the blessings that misfortune brought to us."

Sam nodded and took his glass standing up. "I think for me the worst thing that happened this year was losing my brother to Purgatory. But if I hadn't I would never have learned that sometimes the Monsters aren't so monstrous." He took a sip of his wine and sat down.

Dean stood up and cleared his throat. "The worst moment this year was watching Kevin die and not being fast enough or strong enough to save him and knowing it was my fault." He paused and cleared his throat. "But it taught me to cherish the moments I have, it taught me to make every moment count because they could all end in a second." He sipped his wine and sat down blinking rapidly.

Castiel slowly stood up and took a deep breath. "The worst moment this year for me was when I realized that my arrogance and my lack of faith had cost me what was most precious. The trust of the woman I love more than life itself. I learned that I have to trust her judgement and have faith in her choices and those of my friends and brothers." He sipped his drink and sat unable to look at Alora.

Alora stood and took a slow breath. "I have had a few bad moments this year so it's a bit difficult to narrow down the worst."

Castiel closed his eyes for a moment while she continued. "I will say that learning that my Soul had been tampered with counts as one of the worst. But it has taught me the true nature of forgiveness. It's taught me to put myself in the shoes of someone else's experiences and learn that maybe I'd have made similar choices. And it's taught me that maybe I've punished Castiel enough." She set the wine glass down and took his hand making him look up at her. "Cas. You have spent the last three months doing what you promised you would, you have worked to regain my trust, you've helped teach me to protect myself and I forgive you for tampering with my soul. I love you and you are stuck with me now Mister."

Sam and Dean grinned and started clapping as Castiel jumped up and pulled Alora in against him kissing her deeply. They separated laughing and Sam took a picture of them with his phone, a few days later he got it printed and framed, the first of many Thanksgiving pictures that made their way onto the walls of the Bunker.


End file.
